00135 5
court notes that the Applicants allege a joint violation of Articles 1 and 4 of
the Charter. However, as reflected in its case-law, this Court examines an
94. The
alleged violation of Article 1 of the charter only subsequent to finding violation
of a substantive provision of the Charter.2l The Court will, therefore, flrst
examine the alleged violation of Article 4 of the Charter.
95.Article 4 of the Charter provides that "Human beings are inviolable. Every
human being shall be entitled to respect for his life and the integrity of his
person. No one may be arbitrarily deprived of this right.'
96. Before examining the Applicants' claim in
the present case, the court notes
that, raised in the context of Article 4 of the charter, the question of the death
penalty pertains to whether its imposition constitutes an arbitrary deprivation of
the right to life. That is because Article 4 of the charter does not mention the
death penalty. The Cou( observes that, despite a global trend towards the
abolition of the death penalty, including the adoption of the Second option
Protocol
to the
lnternational covenant
on civil and political Rights,
the
prohibition of the death sentence in international law is still not absolute.
97.
coming to the case at hand, the court notes that the Applicants allege that the
Respondent state has violated the right to life guaranteed in Article 4 of the
charter by not amending the provision of its law on the mandatory imposition
the penal code of
Tanzania, which stipulates that: "A person convicted of murder shall be
of the death penalty. The said provision is Section 1g7 of
sentenced to death". The question is therefore whether the legal provision for
the mandatory imposition of the death sentence in cases of murder violates the
right to life guaranteed in Article 4 of the Charter.
21
see Armand Guehi v. Tanzania (Merits and Reparations), SS 149-j50. see atso Kennedy owino
onyachi and Another v. Tanzania (Merits), SS 158-159; and Alex Thomas v. Tanzania (Meritsi, 13s.
S
27
(